Conrad Black: On Mark Norman case, heads should roll … and not the junior ones

It has been said that, in the case of Mark Norman, the heads should roll. That being the case, the false accusation of Vice Admiral Mark Norman is an embarrassment and in turn an offense for all Canadians.

It should be noted that what is acceptable and necessary is the requirement that all people be identifiable facially in public, not only when they seek access to the services of the provincial government. Now, it is foolish to tell people how to dress, as long as they are identifiable and are wearing clothes that are not bold and embarrassingly revealing of the anatomical areas usually covered. In this way, it is incongruous and annoying for Quebec to profess to be a jurisdiction, a society and a culture that supports freedom of religion, but prohibits any category of persons from wearing clothing or insignia that indicate their religion.

Thus, multiculturalism in Canada was originally intended to be the welcome arrival in Canada of any meritorious applicant to enter as an immigrant, free to practice any religion and maintain any level of familiarity with the culture of their origin, as long as they accepted the laws Canadians and Standards and tried to be able to function in one of our founding languages. To the extent that multiculturalism has been defined in practice as a dilution of English and French cultures, it is a bad and unacceptable development and must be reversed.

True shame

There is no doubt that the false accusation of Vice Admiral Mark Norman is a real shame and offense to all Canadians.

Notably, the RCMP, the same Palooka force that brought us the dreadful trial fiasco and the outright acquittal of Sen. Mike Duffy, claimed that Vice Admiral Norman was the source of press leaks, and registered his home with an order in January. of 2017. This mysteriously leaked to the press. He was suspended with full salary and, finally, in March 2018, he was charged with a trustworthy criminal offense. The government forbade him the benefit of borrowing money for legal fees from government employees accused pending trial, a whimsical attempt to make the hunger surrender.

For its part, neither the media, usually quick enough to jump on the back of any defendant, nor any other serious observer, believed that the defendant would do something like that, or that the RCMP had any real evidence. It was not like that, which provoked the suspicion that the Mounties

It seems to be clear that the prosecutors withheld, deliberately or not, exculpatory evidence. The outgoing liberal deputy and parliamentary secretary, Lieutenant General Andrew Leslie had announced that he would testify on behalf of Vice Admiral Norman. The prime minister took away the period of questions for two days as this despicable abuse of prosecution collapsed. Instead, it should, if it is conscientiously possible, have blamed the former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould. That would have been credible, considering some of his other antics in that office.

Now, it has been said that if he cannot do that, then this rotten egg falls on him and it could be a politically deadly blow.